
Artist
Val Jones
My lifelong journey in art has followed my travels around the UK and the world. I see many influences from places and people but most of all in my present environment in Devon. My landscape inspired paintings and prints aim to express wildness and movement, colour and vibrancy. There are glimpses of features giving scale and contrast though increasingly I’m omitting these and heading towards a more abstract response. I studied in Leeds and after teaching moved to Birmingham where I and gained an M.A. at Birmingham school of art I was senior lecturer there for 6 years before moving to Devon where I’ve lived for the last 28 years, formerly in Totnes and at present in Exeter, a founder member of the CROW (Creative Older Women Artists) as well as the 21 Group of artists. I work from my studio in Sidwell Street My interest in printmaking led me to experiment with monotypes, the most painterly form of printmaking. I was a member of Dartington Printmakers for many years. A few years ago, a painting course with the landscape painter David Tress led me to a more expressive form of printmaking and painting. This also created an enormous transition with the move from oil painting and printmaking to working with acrylics. The properties of acrylic paint had previously deterred me. I preferred the flexibility of working in oils but after a week in Pembrokeshire working from plein air sketches and working in acrylics I moved to a freer, more expressive approach which then influenced my printmaking. I’m currently influenced by David Makin, Cornish painter. I’m interested in the inner landscape of my imagination. “Energy and motion made visible – memories arrested in space” - Jackson Pollock The exciting use of colour and design in the pastel work of David Blackburn led me to work which exploited the contrast of rich swathes of colour with delineating blocks of black satisfying both the need for experiment and control. My most recent monotypes have made that journey into near abstraction with the experimentation of reusing previous fragments of monotypes as Chine Colle. Although I strive for abstraction as the most satisfying form of art practice for me, I understand and take on board the words of Kandinsky “Form itself, even if completely abstract ... has its own inner sound.” - ― Wassily Kandinsky It’s that inner sound I’m chasing and hope to capture.
Heading 2

Exhibition Record
Contemporary British Printmakers on the English Riviera
Following a successful month at Delamore Arts, Artizan Collective are pleased to be bringing their Contemporary British Printmakers Exhibition to their gallery on Lucius Street. From woodcut to etching, lithography to mezzotint, monotyping to mokulito, the variety and diversity of printmaking techniques makes it a near endlessly explorable art form, and one that has defined trends and tastes for centuries. As a practice and craft, it owes much of this evolution to the dialogue that grew between those that pursued its practical use as a tool for reproducing text and image, and the artists that sought to exploit the opportunities this bore for their own creative expression. Today, the spidering and innumerable tributaries that the practice has taken, lend their successes both to the worlds of modern publishing and printing and to one of the most exciting art markets of the 21st century. Contemporary British Printmakers 2025 is our second collaboration with Delamore Arts, bringing together printmakers from across the UK, showcasing original works and exploring a variety of techniques that span over a thousand years of the artform. The exhibition will sit alongside our Spring Sculpture Exhibition featuring works of Abi Higgins, Maria Moorhouse, Rosa Wiland Holmes, Philippa de Burlett and Almut Woolard. The exhibition will launch on 6th June and will then run from 5th June – 6th July Thursday - Saturday 10 am - 5 pm
Art
Gallery

Change the text and make it your own. Click here to begin editing.
Change the text and make it your own. Click here to begin editing.
Heading 1

Blog Posts
Opening Hours
Opening Hours




























































